New front runners - 1st Ballymena now on top of table

Indoor bowls.

Published:12:59Thursday 11 December 2014

In Division Three, the lead has changed with 1st Ballymena now taking over at the top by half a point from Antrim IBC.

This following the Antrim team’s second league defeat this time at West Church, who claimed three of the points at stake. The home teams’ first half point came from Jim Rainey’s rink who had a single shot win against Robert McCullough, but Robert’s son Darren replied with a 12 shot eclipse of Victor Mahon’s rink, which gave the Antrim team a shot lead of 11 shots. The second pair of games resulted in West winning both, where Maurice Livingstone’s rink defeated John Logan by two shots, whereas Tommy Wilson outscored Tom Evans by 11 shots to five which left the home team three shots short of sharing the overall point. 1st Ballymena had an even closer end result as they ended up one shot ahead of Maine overall. The Ballymena winners were Mat McPeake’s rink who won by nine shots over Patsy O’Neill, whereas David McQuitty had a two shot victory over M Kelly. The Randalstown team’s point came from John Heffron who won by two shots, whereas Lawrence McQuillan won by four but the Maine fell one shot shy of a share of the overall point. Services ‘B’ travelled to Round Tower and a successful trip it transpired to be as they came away with three-and-a-half points. These came from a 10 shot win by Eric Smyth plus a three shot victory by Sheila Smuth and Gretta Coulter had a six all result against Michael Murphy. The lone win for the Tower came from John O’Neill who defeated Roy Dickson by four shots which leaves the Antrim based team seeking their second win of the season. West Church 37 (3) v Antrim IBC 40 (2): J Rainey 8 v R McCullough 7, ,V Mahon 6 v D McCullough 18, M Livingstone 12 v J Logan 10, T Wilson 11 v T Evans 5. 1st Ballymena 33 (3) v Maine 32 (2): M McPeake 16 v P O’Neill 7, R Woods 3 v J Heffron 9, D McQuitty 10 v M Kelly 8, L McQuitty 4 v L McQuillan 8. Round Tower 28 (1.5) v Services ‘B’ 37 (3.5): M Murphy 6 v G Coulter 6, H Totten 3 v E Smyth 13, J O’Neill 10 v R Dickson 6, M Teer 9 v S Smith 12.